Topdog/Underdog

Overview

Their father named them Lincoln and Booth…as a joke. Two African-American brothers – left to live life on their own without any parents – learned to survive as street savvy hustlers. Now grown men, their names and their histories haunt them. Lincoln becomes an Abraham Lincoln impersonator, shot nightly by tourists at a local attraction, while Booth tries to pick up his brother’s card skills. The brothers find themselves constantly conning those on the street and, ultimately, each other in this darkly funny fable about family grievances, racism, deep wounds and healing. Full of passion and poetry, Topdog/Underdog is by one of North America’s most consistently thought-provoking playwrights and won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.